Native Plant Society of Texas Certified
Native & Drought-Tolerant Landscaping in Arlington, TX
Yards built around plants that already belong in North Texas soil and North Texas heat. Less water, less replacing, and a landscape that still looks intentional in late August.
Native Plant Society of Texas Certified
Fully Insured
Free Estimates
Clear Tarrant designs and installs native and drought-tolerant landscaping in Arlington, Texas and the surrounding Tarrant County communities. Clear Tarrant is certified by the Native Plant Society of Texas and builds planting plans around species adapted to North Texas soil, heat, and rainfall — including native trees, shrubs, perennials, and prairie grasses. Native landscapes require significantly less irrigation than conventional plantings, hold up through summer watering restrictions, and do not need replanting each season. Estimates are free.
What The Certification Means
Most companies install what’s on the truck that week
Walk into any big-box garden center in May and you’ll find rows of plants that look wonderful in a pot and have no business in a North Texas yard. They’re sold here because they sell, not because they survive here. Plenty of landscapers will happily install them for you, and plenty of homeowners replace them the following spring without ever asking why.
Being certified by the Native Plant Society of Texas means we start from a different question: what actually grew here before anyone was watering it?
Arlington sits where the Fort Worth Prairie meets the Eastern Cross Timbers — clay soils, punishing summers, unreliable rain, and periodic hard freezes. The plants that evolved in that are not delicate. They’ve handled a hundred Augusts without a sprinkler system. Build a yard from those and you’re working with the climate instead of paying every month to fight it.
That’s the whole idea. It isn’t complicated, and it isn’t a trend. It’s just what was here first.
Why People Actually Do This
It shows up on the water bill
Native landscaping gets talked about as an environmental choice. It is one — but that’s rarely why the homeowner in front of us signs off on it.
Established natives barely need irrigation
Once rooted — usually the first full season — most native plantings get by on rainfall plus occasional deep watering in a bad stretch. Outdoor irrigation is the single largest line on most North Texas summer water bills.
They survive the watering schedule
North Texas cities limit outdoor watering, and those limits tighten in a drought year. A yard that only looks good when it’s watered four times a week is a yard that will look bad exactly when everyone is looking.
You stop rebuying the same plants
The real cost of a poorly chosen bed isn’t the install. It’s replanting it every spring, forever. Natives are perennial here in the plain sense of the word: they come back.
The Thing Everybody Worries About
Native doesn’t mean weedy, and it doesn’t mean gravel
Two pictures come to mind when people hear “native landscaping,” and both of them are wrong.
The first is a vacant lot. Unmown, waist-high, indistinguishable from neglect. That’s not a native landscape — that’s the absence of one. A designed native bed has structure, defined edges, deliberate repetition, and seasonal layering. It reads as intentional to anyone walking past, including your HOA.
The second is a field of gravel with three agaves in it. That’s a particular Southwestern style, and it’s not what North Texas natives look like. Our natives are green, flowering, and often lush — beautyberry loaded with purple fruit in fall, Gulf muhly turning pink in October, autumn sage blooming most of the year, inland sea oats in the shade under a live oak.
Done properly, most people can’t tell a native bed is native. They just notice it looks good in August, when everything else on the street doesn’t.
You also don’t have to convert your whole property. Most of our work starts with the beds along the front of the house, or one difficult area nothing has ever grown in. Keep your lawn. Change the parts that keep dying.
North Texas Specific
What actually thrives in an Arlington yard
A sample of what we plant, and where. Your plan depends on your sun, your soil, and what you want it to look like — but this is the territory.
Perennials
Autumn sage, blackfoot daisy, purple coneflower, Gregg’s mistflower, four-nerve daisy, damianita, winecup. Long bloom seasons, and most of them shrug off a hundred-degree week.
Shrubs
American beautyberry, cenizo (Texas sage), flame acanthus, dwarf yaupon holly, agarita. These carry a bed through winter when the perennials have gone back to the ground.
Prairie Grasses
Little bluestem, sideoats grama, Lindheimer and Gulf muhly. Gulf muhly in particular puts on a pink haze in October that stops people on the sidewalk.
Under The Trees
Turk’s cap, inland sea oats, frogfruit, horseherb. The dry shade under a mature live oak defeats most plants sold at retail. These are the ones that handle it.
Understory
Texas redbud, Mexican plum, possumhaw holly, Eve’s necklace. Right-sized for a suburban lot, and none of them will lift your foundation or your driveway.
The Long Game
Cedar elm, chinquapin oak, Texas red oak, bur oak. Slower than a Bradford pear, and still standing in forty years when the Bradford pear has split in a storm.
A Side Effect Worth Having
Your yard is on the monarch flyway
Texas sits directly under the monarch butterfly migration. They pass through North Texas heading south in the fall and north again in the spring, and they need nectar along the way. So do our native bees, which do the actual work in most home vegetable gardens.
Native plantings feed them; ornamental imports mostly don’t. It costs you nothing extra and it happens on its own — plant Gregg’s mistflower and you’ll have monarchs on it in October whether you meant to or not.
It isn’t why most people call us. It’s just a good thing that comes with it, and it’s a genuinely nice thing to watch from your kitchen window.
How We Work
From walkthrough to planted
1. Walk the property
Where the sun actually falls, how the water moves after a storm, what the soil is doing, what’s already there worth keeping.
2. Talk about what you want
Formal or loose, lots of color or mostly green, low or no maintenance, kids and dogs in the yard, HOA rules to respect.
3. Plan and quote
A planting plan with specific species and placement, and a real number. Free, and yours whether you hire us or not.
4. Prep and plant
Bed prep, soil amendment where the clay needs it, planting, mulch, and clear watering instructions for the first season.
Fall and early spring are the best planting windows in North Texas. Planting in July means fighting to keep new roots alive through the worst of it. If you’re calling in midsummer we’ll usually tell you to plan now and plant in October — it costs you a few months and saves the plants.
★★★★★ 5.0 on Google
What Arlington homeowners say
Sean was amazing from the very beginning of my project. His communication and how polite he was is the reason I had him come to my house. He will be my go-to for all my landscaping projects.
— Lynda G.
Clear Tarrant is our go-to for landscaping services. They recently put in a flagstone patio for us. Sean listened, made suggestions, and in the end we were very happy with the end result.
— Jerry W.
Sean was amazing to work with and communication throughout was excellent. He enjoys what he does and takes pride in his work down to the smallest detail. The finished product surpassed my expectation.
— Michelle F.
Questions We Get
Native landscaping FAQs
What are the best native plants for a North Texas yard?
For full sun: autumn sage, blackfoot daisy, purple coneflower, Gregg’s mistflower, and damianita. For structure: American beautyberry, cenizo, flame acanthus, and dwarf yaupon holly. For grasses: little bluestem, sideoats grama, and Gulf muhly. For dry shade under mature trees: Turk’s cap, inland sea oats, and frogfruit. Understory trees that suit a suburban lot include Texas redbud, Mexican plum, and possumhaw holly.
Will a native landscape look wild or unkempt?
Not if it’s designed. Unmown and unplanned is neglect, not native landscaping. A proper native bed has defined edges, deliberate structure, repetition, and seasonal layering — it reads as intentional to anyone walking past, including an HOA. Most people can’t tell a well-built native bed is native. They just notice it looks good in August.
Do I have to get rid of my lawn?
No. Most of our native work starts with the beds along the front of the house, or one problem area where nothing has ever grown well. Keep the lawn you use. Change the parts that keep dying.
How much water do native plants actually need?
They need regular watering through the first season while they root — this is the step people skip, and it’s why an occasional native planting fails. After establishment, most get by on rainfall plus occasional deep watering during a hard dry stretch, which is a fraction of what conventional plantings demand.
Is native landscaping more expensive?
The install is comparable to any quality planting. Where it separates is over time: you’re not replacing plants every spring, and you’re not irrigating heavily all summer. The savings are in what you stop spending, which is why the difference isn’t obvious until the second or third year.
When is the best time to plant natives in North Texas?
Fall is the best window, with early spring a close second. Fall planting gives roots a long cool season to establish before summer arrives. Planting in July means fighting to keep new roots alive through the worst of the year, so if you call us midsummer we’ll usually recommend planning now and planting in October.
What does the Native Plant Society of Texas certification mean?
It means our planting choices are grounded in Texas native plant knowledge rather than whatever a wholesale nursery is pushing that season. Practically, it changes what ends up in your beds — species selected for Arlington’s clay soil, heat, and rainfall rather than for how they look in a pot in May.
Will native plants attract bees and butterflies?
Yes, and that’s usually a feature. North Texas is on the monarch migration route and native plantings feed them along the way, along with native bees. If you have a specific concern about stinging insects near a patio or play area, tell us and we’ll plan the placement around it.
What areas do you serve?
Clear Tarrant is based in Arlington, Texas, and serves Tarrant County — including Mansfield, Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Pantego, Dalworthington Gardens, and southeast Fort Worth. If you’re not sure whether you’re in range, call and we’ll tell you straight.
Often Paired With Native Planting
Other services
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Tired of replanting the same bed every spring?
Call or text Sean and we’ll walk the property, talk about what you want it to look like, and put together a planting plan that survives an Arlington summer.
Native Plant Society of Texas certified · Fully insured · Free estimates · Serving Arlington & Tarrant County